To Say Goodbye
by blackpearl.fantasy
Summary: PostAWE. Elizabeth goes after Jack to give him something that she knows they both want. OneShot.


A/N: AWE spoilers, of course. For the sake of this, please pretend that Jack did not sail away in a dinghy and instead decided to stay in Tortuga for a week. :) And drop a review before you go!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything at all related to Pirates of the Caribbean; that's Disney. (I do own my obsession with it and an AWE soundtrack CD, though)

* * *

He kept finding his way into her thoughts. 

It wasn't the memory of everything that had ever happened between them. Just a stroke of him--a flitting shadow, a phantom. What she had said to him as a farewell, the last time she had seen him. His name. The nickname he had used to call her. The last thing he had said to her when she left him to die.

_It would never have worked out between us._

A pirate king couldn't be haunted with things of the past, she told herself, sitting on the beach of Shipwreck Island.

_Captain Jack Sparrow_.

Nevertheless, she was reminded of him as she thought of her husband.

_Lizzie. _

She vaguely wondered if the name fitted her. The bits and pieces of him chased her through her first day of ten years.

_Pirate. _

She found herself boarding a ship, found herself in Tortuga. She did not know how she arrived at the familiar tavern. She ordered rum, felt the liquid run down her throat. Her thoughts traveled back to the first time she had drank rum. Dancing around a fire, on the beach of a tiny island, singing the song she had sung as a child. Talking about freedom, with the man who was exactly freedom itself.

She did not leave when she was finished, because somehow she knew she would find him here.

And she did.

He was sitting at the table next to her, and she spotted him as she turned. He was pouring rum down his throat, looking thoughtful. She stood, walked over to him, and sat down in the empty chair beside him, rested her elbows on the table. She knew he noticed her presence, knew he recognized her, but neither of them said anything for a long time.

At last, he drained the remains of his rum and spoke.

"You don't happen to have a decent ship for me, do you?"

She shook her head. She knew she shouldn't be there in the tavern, that she would feel guilty for not waiting on the island, but she abandoned those thoughts.

"Barbossa has the _Pearl_," he said.

"And you aren't going to get it back?" she asked.

"No. I've got me charts. That's what really matters."

They left the tavern together, walking slowly through the streets to the harbor.

"That would be me ship for now," he said, indicating a pathetic little dinghy bobbing on the water.

"You're going to use _that_ to sail to the Fountain of Youth?"

"Aye."

She knew there would be no point in doubting that he would manage. They stood in silence under the stars for a few minutes. They felt like an eternity--her ten years could have passed before he spoke again.

"I assume that you won't be in Tortuga for long, eh?"

"I won't," she said. "I only came to find you."

"I knew you'd warm up to me," he said, and the familiar words soothed her.

"And I knew once would never be enough," she said gently, and in an instant she embraced him and with her eyes closed pulled him into a deep, fiery kiss. Their lips locked ardently, and in the kiss she could taste freedom and could never get enough, she could feel his longing and his passionate love, and she wanted to give him love in return... She never wanted to let go, never wanted to withdraw from the adventurous side of her, never wanted to leave the dangerous alluring life that she had stared at but never reached. And then her mind lost even those thoughts, and she plunged into nothingness, with only the feel of his lips to guide her through the night--and that was enough. And nothing existed exept the two of them; he emanated a beautiful glowing warmth in the middle of the cold dark, and she held on to it, cherished the glow and let herself sink into the luxurious warmth.

But when, after what seemed like hours and hours of blissful oblivion, they parted and she opened her eyes, they were wet and sparkling, and her cheeks stained with tears. He stared at her face, stroked her hair.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and he heard the unsaid words behind it, the burden lifted, each word heavy and filled with grief. _I'm sorry I left you to die. I'm sorry it wouldn't have worked between us. I'm sorry we can't be together. I'm sorry you had to sacrifice your immortality for my husband..._

"I just wanted to say goodbye."

And she pushed away from him, feeling his tragedy-struck eyes on her as she ran away, into the darkness.


End file.
